


Hold Your Breath and Start Again

by Immicolia



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Alternate Ending, Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-19
Updated: 2011-10-19
Packaged: 2017-10-24 18:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immicolia/pseuds/Immicolia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU off of the end of episode 8, in which Ivan decides he can’t let Edward be locked away again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold Your Breath and Start Again

**Author's Note:**

> I initially called this "Through the Wall" when posting it on LJ and Tumblr. But since I'm fickle about titles I have decided I like this one better. For now I guess.

Ivan's a little surprised that Edward didn't immediately run the instant Lunatic was distracted. Even after Wild Tiger and Barnaby chase him off across the rooftops Edward is still crouched right where Tiger put them. Huddled almost into a ball and when Ivan reaches out to touch his shoulder Edward's immediate reaction is to slap his hand away. The movement clumsy and slow enough for Ivan to notice the dark red staining the hand that Edward had just had pressed to his side.

"You're bleeding."

"Someone's as observant as ever."

"But... there's no way you could have been cut during any of that. Your clothes aren't torn. How?..."

"How do you think I escaped?" Edward shoots back, his expression tight. "Security's a little bit lighter in the infirmary since you have to be in pretty bad shape to wind up there. There's the odd spot where there's breaks in whatever it is that dampens powers. I must have popped my stitches while trying not to get set on fire."

"So you hurt yourself just to get out."

"No. Getting shanked is just something that happens. I took advantage of an opportunity. You learn pretty damn quick what chances are the best kinds to take. What's safe and what can wind up getting you beaten half to death." He smiles, a vicious sort of baring of teeth. "You learn all sorts of things that you wish you never knew. Like how long hair can apparently make for a great handle when someone wants to stop you from moving, and just how far an arm can bend before it breaks, and how much pain you can take before you pass out, and what it's like to be...."

"Okay!" Ivan hates the way the word comes out sounding like a yelp, although at least Edward stops. No longer smiling that strained, cold, smile anymore, his eyes gone flat and dead as if he's tangled up in memories that he can't quite shake and Ivan can feel his stomach flip and twist a little while he watches Edward shut down. The screaming of sirens growing ever closer and Ivan's not really thinking when he hauls Edward to his feet, knowing that if he thinks he's going to talk himself out of this. Only pausing long enough to murmur an apology at Edward's hiss of pain before he starts walking, one hand tight around Edward's arm and his heart cracks a little as it occurs to him that Edward's stopped fighting.

There's already a handful of campus security guards scrambling around and attempting to cordon the area and Ivan babbles some half-thought through nonsense about how he's going to meet the police at the gate with their escaped convict. Something he's positive he's going to be called out on if only because it sounds so weak and implausible. But they wave him past and Edward glares quiet daggers at him (although he still doesn't fight, exhausted and resigned to whatever fate Ivan is leading him towards) until he realizes that Ivan isn't heading towards the front gate. He's weaving between darkened buildings towards the back fence that Edward had slipped the two of them through once or twice after curfew. Their bodies pressed tight and Ivan remembers the way Edward had whispered, "Hold your breath," against his ear and the strange scratchiness of sand against his skin when Edward wrapped the both of them up in his power and slid them through a solid wall. It all feeling like it was a lifetime ago.

"What are you doing?" Edward asks after a moment, his eyes looking a little less lost and Ivan wonders if he recognizes the direction they're heading and is remembering the same thing.

"I'm getting you out of here," Ivan replies, trying to smile in the face of the vicious sort of fury that is starting to creep across Edward's features.

"Have you lost your mind? This is aiding and abetting a fugitive. It'll cost you _everything_ if you help me get away. They'll probably throw you in jail. Hero or not the justice system doesn't like NEXTs that commit crimes, in case you haven't noticed."

"So maybe I'll run with you."

"Now I know you've lost it. We'd be on the run from everything. From the cops, from your Hero friends, from that psycho who just tried to kill me...."

"He tried to kill me too," Ivan offers and Edward glares, giving his head a sharp shake and jerking his arm out of Ivan's grip. Unable to stop himself from wincing a little at the sudden movement.

"Don't do this to yourself."

"I wouldn't think you'd care. You were trying to kill me an hour ago."

"Maybe I shouldn't care! I should be wanting to see you locked away and having to deal with...." Edward's voice chokes off, unable to finish while that stricken sort of horror creeps into his eyes again. As if he's imagining what _would_ happen to Ivan if he were locked away amongst the worst of the worst just like Edward has been. "We're going back."

"I don't want to see you back in there any more than you want to see me. We're going to get out of here. I'm going to get you out of Sternbild. Maybe... maybe we can start over. We just have to get off the grounds first. Through the wall, just like...."

"I'm too tired," Edward snaps, cutting him off. "That's why I didn't run earlier. If I get too exhausted to control my powers properly I'll wind up buried alive. If I try to drag you along too and it happens I don't think you'd enjoy it." He pauses for a moment, that tight smile back and flashing in Ivan's direction. "Or maybe you would. You're really willing to martyr yourself over what happened to me, aren't you?"

"The wall's not that thick," Ivan says simply, ignoring the question. His fingers curling around Edward's wrist to tug him the last few feet towards their destination. "It shouldn't exhaust you so much that we get stuck halfway and you know it. I was too afraid to do anything for you then, let me do this for you now."

Edward lets out a ragged, shuddering, sigh. His arms moving stiffly as they wrap around Ivan's body, tugging him just a little bit closer and Ivan barely hears the harsh whisper of, "Hold your breath," before Edward's face presses against the crook of his neck and they slip through the wall in a swirl of sand.


End file.
